Rob Brezsny's Astrology Newsletter
MARCH 16, 2011
FreeWillAstrology.com
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My book PRONOIA IS THE ANTIDOTE FOR PARANOIA is available
at Amazon: bit.ly/Pronoia
and also at Powells: bit.ly/PronoiaPowells
I've posted a new piece from the book on my website. It's the
true story of my first trip to the Burning Man festival in the
Nevada desert, when I got the idea to create the Beauty and Truth
Lab and write the book about pronoia.
Go here to read it: bit.ly/BabyWipe
Here's a brief excerpt:
It was there in the middle of the desert that the Beauty and
Truth Laboratory was born. My vision was clear: It would be a
tribe of hope fiends. A hotbed of loving geniuses. A gang of lunatic
saints and emotional giants and crafty optimists. A think tank
of sacred agents and scientific poets and dissident bodhisattvas
and virtuoso bliss-invokers.
The Beauty and Truth Lab would be an actual place, or maybe a
web of places, where compassionate masters of rowdy bliss gathered
to explore the frontiers of beauty, truth, love, justice, integrity,
goodness, pleasure, fun, redemption, and emotional intelligence.
Part of it would serve as a real laboratory, a matrix where we
could conduct actual experiments. Our purpose would not be merely
to make our own lives richer, but also to offer inspiration to
others through the books, music, performances, and films we'd
generate in the course of our work.
READ THE REST OF THIS PIECE HERE: bit.ly/BabyWipe
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MORE PRONOIA RESOURCES:
MAGIC IS AFOOT
Nobel Prize winning biologist says DNA can electromagnetically
teleport a duplicate of itself between test tubes.
tinyurl.com/5u5ceq4
tinyurl.com/4f7muzx
ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS ISN'T ALL BAD
New Forests Are Increasing Dramatically
"For every acre of rain forest cut down each year, more than
50 acres of new forest are growing in the tropics on land that
was once farmed, logged or ravaged by natural disaster."
tinyurl.com/6cabdvh
USING HEAT TO GET COOLER
The First Solar-Powered Air Conditioner
tinyurl.com/4vlre9m
(Note: I endorse these because I like them. They are not advertisements,
and I get no kickbacks.)
Please tell me your own personal nominations for PRONOIA RESOURCES.
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FREE WILL ASTROLOGY
Week beginning March 17
Copyright 2011 by Rob Brezsny
FreeWillAstrology.com
PISCES (Feb. 19-March 20):
If I had to come up with a title for the next phase of your
astrological cycle, it might be "Gathering Up." The
way I see it, you should focus on collecting any resources that
are missing from your reserves. You should hone skills that are
still too weak to get you where you want to go, and you should
attract the committed support of allies who can help you carry
out your dreams and schemes. Don't be shy about assembling the
necessities, Pisces. Experiment with being slightly voracious.
ARIES (March 21-April 19):
Like Bob Dylan in his 1962 song "A Hard Rain's A-Gonna
Fall," you've done a lot of rough and tumble living lately.
You've "stumbled on the side of twelve misty mountains."
You've "stepped in the middle of seven sad forests."
You've "been out in front of a dozen dead oceans." Maybe
most wrenching of all, you've "seen a highway of diamonds
with nobody on it." The good news is that the hard rain will
end soon. In these last days of the downpour, I suggest you trigger
a catharsis for yourself. Consider doing something like what Dylan
did: "I'll think it and speak it and breathe it / And reflect
it from the mountain so all souls can see it."
TAURUS (April 20-May 20):
Mythologist Michael Meade says that the essential nature of every
human soul is gifted, noble, and wounded. I agree. Cynics who
exaggerate how messed-up we all are, ignoring our beauty, are
just as unrealistic as naive optimists. But because the cynics
have a disproportionately potent influence on the zeitgeist, they
make it harder for us to evaluate our problems with a wise and
balanced perspective. Many of us feel cursed by the apparent incurability
of our wounds, while others, rebelling against the curse, underestimate
how wounded they are. Mead says: "Those who think they are
not wounded in ways that need conscious attention and careful
healing are usually the most wounded of all." Your task in
the next few weeks, Taurus, is to make a realistic appraisal of
your wounds.
GEMINI (May 21-June 20):
Metallica's frontman James Hetfield brashly bragged to Revolver
magazine that he was proud his music was used to torture prisoners
at the U.S. military's detention camp in Guantanamo Bay. I urge
you to make a more careful and measured assessment of the influences
that you personally put out into the world. It's time to find
out how closely your intentions match your actual impact -- and
to correct any discrepancies. How are people affected by the vibes
you exude and the products you offer and the words you utter and
the actions you undertake?
CANCER (June 21-July 22):
"In the absence of clearly-defined goals," said Cancerian
writer Robert Heinlein, "we become strangely loyal to performing
daily trivia until ultimately we become enslaved by it."
If this description is even a partial match for the life you're
living, now is an excellent time to address the problem. You have
far more power than usual to identify and define worthy goals
-- both the short-term and long-term variety. If you take advantage
of this opportunity, you will find a better use for the energy
that's currently locked up in your enslavement to daily trivia.
LEO (July 23-Aug. 22):
As I was mulling over your astrological omens, I came across
a short poem that aptly embodies the meaning of this moment for
you. It's by Richard Wright, and goes like this: "Coming
from the woods / A bull has a lilac sprig / Dangling from a horn."
Here's one way to interpret this symbolic scene: Primal power
is emerging into a clearing from out of the deep darkness. It
is bringing with it a touch of lithe and blithe beauty -- a happy
accident.
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LISTEN TO AN EXPANDED HOROSCOPE
Factual information and reasonable thinking alone are not sufficient
to guide you through life's labyrinthine tests. You need and deserve
regular deliveries of uncanny revelation.
One of your inalienable rights as a human being should therefore
be to receive mysteriously useful omens on a regular basis. In
this spirit, I offer you the free weekly horoscopes you read here.
If you ever want more, and think it's worth paying for, try my
EXPANDED AUDIO HOROSCOPES. They're available here: RealAstrology.com
You can also access them by phone: 1-877-873-4888 or 1-900-950-7700.
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VIRGO (Aug. 23-Sept. 22):
As I see it, you have one potential enemy in the coming weeks:
a manic longing for perfection. It's OK to feel that longing as
a mild ache. But if you allow it to grow into a burning obsession,
you will probably undo yourself at every turn. You may even sabotage
some of the good work you've done. My recommendation, then, is
to give yourself the luxury of welcoming partial success, limited
results, and useful mistakes. Paradoxically, cultivating that
approach will give you the best chance at getting lots of things
done. Here's your motto for the week, courtesy of Theodore Roosevelt:
"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."
LIBRA (Sept. 23-Oct. 22):
When I was nine years old, one of my favorite jokes went like
this: "What's worse than biting into an apple and finding
a worm? Give up? Biting into an apple and finding half a worm."
According to my reading of the astrological omens, Libra, that's
a good piece of information for you to keep in mind right now.
If and when a serpent offers you an apple, I hope you will sink
your teeth into it with cautious nibbles. I'm not saying you shouldn't
bite, just that you should proceed warily.
SCORPIO (Oct. 23-Nov. 21):
Normally we think of a garbage dump as a spot where we go to
get rid of trash and outworn stuff we no longer need. It emits
a stench that wafts a great distance, and it's a not a place where
you wear your finery. But there is a dump in northern Idaho that
diverges slightly from that description. It has the usual acres
of rubbish, but also features a bonus area that the locals call
"The Mall." This is where people dispose of junk that
might not actually be junk. It has no use for them any more, but
they recognize that others might find value in it. It was at The
Mall where my friend Peter found a perfectly good chainsaw that
had a minor glitch he easily fixed. I suspect that life may be
like that dump for you in the coming week: a wasteland with perks.
SAGITTARIUS (Nov. 22-Dec. 21):
According to Argentinian writer Jorge Luis Borges, time "is
a tiger that devours me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire that
consumes me, but I am the fire." I believe he meant for that
statement to be true for all of us. Luckily for you, though, you'll
soon be getting a temporary exemption. For a while, you'll be
more like the tiger than the one the tiger devours; you will have
more in common with the fire than with the one consumed by the
fire. In other words, Sagittarius, you will have more power than
usual to outwit the tyrannies of time. Are you ready to take advantage?
You're primed to claim more slack, more wiggle room, more permission.
CAPRICORN (Dec. 22-Jan. 19):
San Francisco band Smash-Up Derby approaches their music-making
with a spirit that might be useful for you to emulate in the coming
week, Capricorn. Each of their songs is a blend of two famous
tunes. Typically, the instrumentalists play a rock song while
the singers do a pop hit with a similar chord progression. Imagine
hearing the guitars, bass, and drums play Nirvana's "Smells
Like Teen Spirit" while the lead vocalist croons Lady Gaga's
"Bad Romance." The crucial part of their ongoing experiment
is that it works. The sound coming from the stage isn't a confusing
assault. You could pull off a challenge like that: combining disparate
elements with raucous grace.
AQUARIUS (Jan. 20-Feb. 18):
Last August I wrote you a horoscope that spoke of opportunities
you'd have to upgrade your close relationships. I said you'd be
tested in ways that would push you to get more ingenious and tenacious
about collaborating with people you cared about. Hoping to inspire
you, I cited two people I know who have successfully re-imagined
and reinvented their marriage for many years. In response, one
reader complained. "Yuck!" his email began. "I
thought I was getting a horoscope but instead I got a sentimental
self-help blurb in the style of Reader's Digest." I took
his words to heart. As you Aquarians enter a new phase when you
could do a lot to build your intimacy skills, I'll try something
more poetic: Succulent discipline and luminous persistence
equals incandescent kismet.
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HOMEWORK:
What is the thing you're so ignorant about that you barely know
you're ignorant about it? Testify at FreeWillAstrology.com.
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WANT TO GET YOUR CHART DONE?
I'm not doing personal charts, but I highly recommend my astrological
colleague, RO LOUGHRAN. Her approach closely matches my own. In
our many discussions about astrology over the years, we've had
a major influence on each other's work.
Ro utilizes a blend of well-trained
intuition, emotional warmth, and
a high
degree of technical proficiency
in horoscope interpretation; she
is skilled
at exploring the mysteries of your
life's purpose and nurturing your
connection with your own inner
wisdom.
Ro is based in California, but
can do phone consultations and
otherwise
work with you regardless of geographic
boundaries.
Ro's website is at YourSoulJourney.com
She can also be reached at roloughran@comcast.net
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Contents of the Free Will Astrology Newsletter are Copyright
2011 Rob Brezsny
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